The Biden and now Trump-era Department of Energy is quietly moving from regulator to builder, reportedly soliciting proposals to site and finance large-scale AI data centers and the power plants that will feed them on federal land. What began as a promise to help national labs host private-sector computing now reads like a federal takeover of the physical infrastructure that will run tomorrow’s artificial intelligences, and ordinary Americans ought to be asking who authorized this bailout of Big Tech.
This shift didn’t happen by accident — it flows straight from executive-level direction to prioritize nuclear capacity as a national-security and economic imperative, with explicit orders to accelerate advanced reactors and designate AI data centers as defense-critical facilities. That White House playbook blesses using federal assets and special programs to speed reactors into the ground, a recipe for political favoritism dressed up as “security.”
Market analysts and industry trackers have even concluded the department is preparing an unprecedented program that could see the federal government purchase or own up to ten reactors to guarantee the firm, round-the-clock power AI needs. If true, that would be a breathtaking expansion of federal ownership into America’s energy backbone — the kind of heavy-handed intervention conservatives warned would happen if the administrative state ever decided it had the right to pick winners and own the factories.
Meanwhile, the private giants aren’t sitting on the sidelines: Google and other hyperscalers have been striking deals to bankroll new nuclear capacity to keep their data centers humming, proving that the market knows where demand is headed even if bureaucrats insist on stepping in. That combination — Big Tech cash plus federal land and political guarantees — should set off alarms about corporate welfare and the revolving-door incentives it creates.
Make no mistake, conservatives have long supported nuclear energy as the clean, reliable alternative to flaky renewables; the difference now is who controls the build-out. Hardworking taxpayers must not be put on the hook for plush development deals that benefit billion-dollar firms while bureaucrats centralize control of critical infrastructure under the guise of “AI dominance.” This is not patriotism; it’s subsidy-laden cronyism.
Proponents will point to national-security rationales — that AI for the military and intelligence community needs guaranteed power. But turning that argument into carte blanche for federal ownership and special fuel allocations risks concentrating power in Washington at a moment when our greatest strength is decentralization, private initiative, and local accountability. If we cede control of energy to political managers, we hand the keys of liberty to a few faceless offices.
Conservatives should back nuclear deployment on principle while demanding it happen the right way: fast, private investment, streamlined permitting, and real competition — not government picks, land giveaways, and open-ended liabilities for taxpayers. Reform the NRC to be sensible, protect supply chains, and let entrepreneurs and utilities shoulder risk rather than creating a permanent federal nuclear ownership class.
If Washington insists on playing a role, make it simple and limited: clear rules, transparent bidding, and ironclad protections so taxpayers are first in line to see returns — not last. Patriots love American innovation, but we will not stand by while bureaucrats and billionaires carve up our country in the name of progress. The American people deserve energy independence without surrendering control of their future to a cartel of ministers and megacorps.
